Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has what he says is an informed explanation for why Mitt Romney refuses to release additional tax returns. According a Bain investor, Reid charged, Romney didn’t pay any taxes for 10 years.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Huffington Post from his office on Capitol Hill, Reid saved some of his toughest words for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Romney couldn’t make it through a Senate confirmation process as a mere Cabinet nominee, the majority leader insisted, owing to the opaqueness of his personal finances.
“His poor father must be so embarrassed about his son,” Reid said, in reference to George Romney’s standard-setting decision to turn over 12 years of tax returns when he ran for president in the late 1960s.
Saying he had “no problem with somebody being really, really wealthy,” Reid sat up in his chair a bit before stirring the pot further. A month or so ago, he said, a person who had invested with Bain Capital called his office.
“Harry, he didn’t pay any taxes for 10 years,” Reid recounted the person as saying.
“He didn’t pay taxes for 10 years! Now, do I know that that’s true? Well, I’m not certain,” said Reid. “But obviously he can’t release those tax returns. How would it look?
Let’s just see how much of this sustained kind of assault he can take before deciding it is no longer worth it to hide all his tax dodges.
eric
Who is this “Harry Reid” of which you speak? I do not recognize him.
Hunter Gathers
Mittens is never releasing his taxes. He’ll risk looking like crook instead of explaining how only True American Patriots get to pay negative tax rates on their millions.
feebog
How long will he keep dodging the tax return issue? Right up to the election. I’m firmly convinced that releasing those returns would sink his candidacy faster than the Titanic hitting the iceberg. Waiting for Hannity to pop a blood vessel on air over this. I love it when Democrats actually fight back.
4tehlulz
Given Mitt’s ability to combust at the mention of his taxes, I expect an n-bomb from him inside of a week.
Litlebritdifrnt
From the twitters
If only indeed.
Thoroughly Pizzled
Maybe he’ll name Sarah Palin as his VP candidate and take advantage of the confusion to release his tax returns.
Jay in Oregon
It would be irresponsible not to speculate.
schrodinger's cat
Taxes are for you people, not for royalty like Mittens, says Queen Ann of the hideous fashion sense.
Turgidson
Glad the Dem leaders are keeping this story alive.
Now let’s not forget that there’s a paper trail of official government documents signed under penalty of perjury showing that Romney is a lying sack of shit. That story has dropped way too far off the radar for my tastes.
D. Mason
He has to hide them. It’s better to let people speculate and whisper about what might be in them than to show the truth, if it is true, that he paid no taxes for so long. A guy who paid no taxes on obscene wealth while sending American jobs overseas by the boatload, campaigning on a platform of lowering taxes on the rich to create jobs. Our flaccid media would still ignore the obvious scoop but word spreads about some things even without their help and I’m betting that would be one of those things. And with that his Presidential aspiration would be over, in steps Jeb at the convention to save the party. Maybe he will release them…
Commenting at Balloon Juice Since 1937
I’m not saying I know for sure that Mitt performed child sacrifices to Moroni, I’m just saying someone called my office saying they were there and saw it.
schrodinger's cat
@Jay in Oregon: May be not only no taxes, but tax fraud.
JoyceH
I think this is a brilliant fake by Reid. By pretending to believe that Romney paid no taxes for ten years, the hope is that he’ll release them to prove that he did so pay taxes – and thereby convict himself with his own records of committing vote fraud by voting in Mass when he was no longer a resident. (shhhh!)
Jay C
Isn’t Harry Reid also a Mormon? I thought one of the basic LDS tenets was that one just doesn’t backstab (publicly at least) one’s fellow Saints: partisan politics notwithstanding.
In any case, good: “Give ’em Hell, Harry!!”
Caravelle
What I’m wondering is, if Romney persists in not releasing those records, when somebody will get around to leaking them. I’m getting really really curious as to what they contain. And if they get leaked the shadenfreude would be at its maximum – our curiousity would be satisfied, whatever’s in there that’s damaging would do its damage, and Romney wouldn’t even get the credit for releasing them.
Then again they might use that to attack the Obama camp for underhanded tactics, so hmmm. On the fence.
schrodinger's cat
@Jay C: May be there are Mormons who are not Romney fans.
jl
@Jay C: He’s not backstabbing, he is getting on the roof and with a bullhorn. There is a difference. And anyway there is this from the link….
” Romney recently told ABC News that he couldn’t recall if there were years when he paid below the 13.9 percent tax rate that he paid in 2010. Although he said he was “happy to go back and look,” his campaign declined to do just that. “
dmsilev
“Now, I’m not saying I know for sure that Mitt Romney screws goats and then claims them as dependents on his tax returns. That’s just a rumor I heard. But Mitt Romney could put this tax-deductible-goat-fucking rumor to rest if he’d just release his tax returns.”
marv
Well, it looks like he’s going to make it out of Poland without telling the Poles they’re all exactly the right height, so I lost that bet. Darnit.
Violet
@Turgidson: It’s just a lull. The Democrats knew it wasn’t the best use of the info to push this story when the Olympics were only just starting and Romney was out of the country making a fool of himself. But he’s about to head home and now’s the time to breathe life into the tax returns story again.
The press is starting to get ticked off with the Romney campaign and won’t be in the mood to cut him any slack. I think they’ll find that looking into this story will pay ratings dividends in a way that the horse race narrative isn’t.
Villago Delenda Est
@D. Mason:
At this point, lowering taxes on OvenMitt means we’d be giving him a stipend out of the Federal budget for being so fabulous.
No, really. We should be subsidizing his opulent lifestyle not just by letting him skate on taxes, we should all be paying tribute to the man. We should happily pay, all of us, for the stable of his dancing horse.
Clearly, that’s what’s going on here.
He (and his entire family) are parasites. Deal with them accordingly.
jl
What bothers me is that Harry is getting close to incivility here.
” …They are going to assemble 17 angry old white men for breakfast, some of them will slobber in their food, some will have scrambled eggs, some will have oatmeal, their teeth are gone. But these 17 angry old white men will say, ‘Hey, we just bought America. Wasn’t so bad. We still have a whole lot of money left.’ ”
I await the sorrowful Brooks column about radical bomb thrower Harry.
Zifnab
@Hunter Gathers: Crooks get elected all the time. It’s not the crime that gets you. It’s the cover up.
wenchacha
Really pretty happy with Harry Reid today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Keep up the pressure.
hep kitty
@eric: He’s the same guy that said to burn the Olympic uniforms made in China.
I know, I know.
Maude
Didn’t Harry Reid say that Romney couldn’t be elected to be dog catcher a few weeks ago?
Turgidson
@Caravelle:
The Romney campaign accuses the Obama campaign of underhanded tactics when they tell the truth about Romney being a lying sack of shit. So who fucking cares if Romney tries to attack Obama in that scenario. He’ll just look like a crybaby again.
I’m thinking Romney has his accountants and tax attorneys very well-compensated/bribed to keep them loyal to him on this one, so I’m not sure there will be a leak.
Culture of Truth
I don’t what to hear the SOB admit he didn’t pay any taxes for 10 years, I want to hear the SOB deny that he didn’t pay any taxes for 10 years.
that’s Nevada politics.
Villago Delenda Est
@wenchacha:
He’s a Senator. He can’t be “Mr. Speaker” even if the Dems controlled the House (which they do not).
He’s “Mr. Majority Leader”.
gvg
I do think there is something in them that he thinks the public wouldn’t like, however he is looking pretty wimpy about um everything so he may be overreacting and ….how would a Bain investor know whats in romney’s taxes? I guess he might know what Bain the company claimed as profit but I don’t see that its a forgone conclusion that the tip knows what they are talking about…unless Romney boasted to “friends”.
It does put more pressure on Romney which I approve but I’m starting to think Romney is too clueless to realize he needs to give in. While I would be happy he lost based on the populace’s suspicion I’d really prefer to actually know.
jl
Mitt Romney, homewrecker…
MITT ROMNEY, HOMEWRECKER, IS ‘OTHER MAN’ IN 300-POUND FELLOW’S FACEBOOK-LOVE-TRIANGLE RAGE
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/31/harry-reid-romney-taxes_n_1724027.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003
Coincidence that this happened while Mitt was out of the country? Not a chance.
Now Mitt will return to a sex triangle and tax money scandal. Win!
/snark tag here.
Edit: oops, wrong link. How did that happen? I will try again.
slippy
@jl:
Oh, it’s what excites me. I’m more interested because he’s just throwing it out there.
Who? The guy who makes the funny movies?
Oh, I remember there’s some dumbfuck who nobody listens to who writes under that name, too, and fuck his opinion in the ass with a cactus.
Brachiator
@Hunter Gathers:
I agree with you. He may release one more return and then claim that this is all that is necessary and then hold firm as long as possible. As long as the GOP and Fox News backs him, he may get away with it.
Of course, the Democrats and smart journalists can ask how many tax returns Romney’s VP choice had to provide.
dmsilev
Somebody won’t get invited to the next Koch retreat:
NancyDarling
@Jay C: Harry Reid was raised poor in Searchlight, Nevada. He did not grow up in the gilded cage that moneyed Mormons raise their children in.
Harry knows a bit about street fighting and twisting the shiv. I think he may have done some amateur boxing in his youth—but I could be wrong about that.
Culture of Truth
As someone put it, they are living rent-free inside Mitt’s head. and it’s roomy in there.
Sly
Yet another Federal judge rules Section 3 of DOMA unconstitutional.
That’s 5 for 5 for those who haven’t been counting, and the latest ruling comes from a Dubya appointee. SCOTUS has already received petitions to hear the previous four (all within the last month or so), they’ll probably getting a petition on this one, making it really odd if they punted on the issue in the Fall.
To paraphrase an idiot self-certified ophthalmologist, 2012 can’t get much gayer.
General Stuck
I can’t tell you how relaxing and soothing it is to see democrats, at least some high ranking ones, lose their fear of the republican noise machine. And I suspect the reason why Romney was a tax scofflaw, just maybe, a teeny bit have to do with numbered accounts in Europe and tax shelter in the Caymans, just like all the other cheaters with off shore corps assigned in those places being not more than a PO Mail Box .
Galtian Paridisio
There’s No Tellin’ Where the Money Went
It was simply Irresistible
Libby Spencer
Of course, it could be total BS on Reid’s part, but you have to love the “when did you stop beating your wife” strategy. About time Dems start making the GOPers take some of their own medicine. Didn’t think Harry had it in him.
Jay in Oregon
@Caravelle:
The only way I can see that not backfiring on Obama in a big way (imagine weeks of “did the Obama campaign violate federal law in leaking Romney’s taxes?”) is if the trail clearly leads to, say, an ex-McCain campaign staffer.
As an added bonus, it’d give Glenn Kessler a sad because he couldn’t use the excuse of it being a partisan attack.
Maybe someone can persuade a certain ex-mayor of Wasilla that if she kneecaps Romney right before the convention, they’ll have to give her the nomination?
Steve
This was delightfully unsubtle of Harry Reid.
jl
MITT ROMNEY, HOMEWRECKER, IS ‘OTHER MAN’ IN 300-POUND FELLOW’S FACEBOOK-LOVE-TRIANGLE RAGE
http://wonkette.com/479653/mitt-romney-homewrecker-is-other-man-in-300-pound-fellows-facebook-love-triangle-rage
kindness
Yet when I go on NPR and other ‘librul’ sites there is always a teabagger whining about how President Obama hasn’t released his college transcripts. And somehow those very same wailing folk act like tax returns and college transcripts are the same.
Doug Danger
Reid betrayed a lot of his NV constituents. Screw clean energy, Harry’s got energy companies to please. I don’t believe much of what comes out of his mouth.
NotMax
To whomever sprinkled the steroids on Reid’s breakfast cereal:
Thank you.
me
@Jay C: I wonder if he’s on an LDS shitlist for this, DADT and just being a Democrat, or if they give him slack because he has power.
jibeaux
Harry Reid: Less Useless Than A One-Legged Hunting Dog Since 2012
ericblair
@Turgidson:
I hope there won’t be a leak from the IRS side, because that’s what would derail this whole attack most rikky-tick. I’m guessing his records are locked down pretty hard.
I’m guessing there’s more than a little truth to zero taxes for multiple years, and that Romney will sit there and take this shit and speculation and suspicion indefinitely rather than cough up the goods. If there’s one year on those returns where he paid squat, that’s the end of the tax whining for every rich fuck out there. Might even penetrate a few winger heads at that point when they figure out that they paid more tax (total, not percentage) than Mr. Roboto Moneybags.
mdblanche
@schrodinger’s cat: I’m still guessing he’s claiming depreciation on a portrait of himself that’s aging.
Jay C
@jl:
Oh, yeah: I’m sure Willard and the gang would be just thrilled to have his tax situation pushed into the limelight again: thrilled!
At this point (IMO, anyway), it doesn’t matter what tax rate Romney paid: anything short of, say, 50% is going to merely reinforce the “scheming rich-guy tax-evader” meme:
advantage: Team Obama…..
shortstop
Next to impossible that he paid no taxes. Now, did he pay obscenely low, low taxes? Oh, hell, yeah.
Once Reid goads Romney into releasing the returns to prove that he did pay taxes, we can have a national discussion about why he paid so little and why the tax system needs reform.
But I really don’t think Mitt’s going to release them. I think he prefers the rumor mill to letting us see the reality.
NancyDarling
Don Barlett and James Steele were on DemocracyNow yesterday talking about their book, “The Betrayal of the American Dream”. One of them said that Rmoney is probably amending his returns for the last 10 years. Can he do that and conceal the fact that they are amended?
Today Wayne Barrett was on reporting about the corruption of SLC and how one of the biggest beneficiaries of that corruption is a major donor to Rmoney’s campaign.
Redshift
@Libby Spencer: It was a nice “make the sonofabitch deny it” accusation. Tying it back to “a Bain investor” was especially clever.
I’m trying to decide whether Romney will demand an apology this time, or if he’s finally figured out that it makes him look whiny and weak.
Johnk
If The Biship gipped the IRS he probably gipped the LDS too. With the IRS, The Bishop goes to jail. With the LDS he goes to Hell. Little wonder he won’t release his tax returns.
The Dangerman
I wonder if there is someone from the Republican side that knows what’s in the returns that will ratfuck Romney; I understand McCain had the returns, so could they get leaked from his camp? Which Republican would be treacherous enough to do such a thing? OK, which Republican other than Palin, I mean.
Just Some Fuckhead
The reason the unlikely Harry Reid is sustaining this sort of assault on Romney is because Reid is also Mormon. They’re trying to depress the Mormon turnout for Romney.
David Hunt
@Caravelle:
Not gonna happen. I’ve looked at the tax returns that he did release and although they’re long and confusing, they could have been prepared by one guy who had the accounting data for the entities in front of him. There was probably a small number of CPAs or immediate staff that are the only people outside of Mitt & Ann Romney that have held those returns. The accountants are not going to release those returns short of Mittens okaying it or getting a court order. Doing even by accident could be a risk to your license to practice and doing it on purpose to someone of Romney’s stature would be a death sentence for your business. Plus I’d lay odds that preparer was a tax lawyer in addition to a CPA so the returns might be covered by privilege as well as professional standards for confidentiality.
Now, I know that Mitt gave the McCain campaign a load of financial disclosure forms when they were vetting him for the VP slot in ’08, but I don’t think anyone who was allowed to lay their hands on the documents would release them. He’s the (presumptive) GOP nominee. Actually, I strongly suspect Romney was obsessive about making sure that all copies of the documents were either returned to his possession or destroyed.
tl;dr version: I bet Mitt’s been too careful about who has access to those documents for them to be released to the public without his permission.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
This on the arse end of Rmoney’s faux pas world tour.
The more the man speaks, the less people like him. He’s unelectable. That’s why you see the wingnut brigade brandishing “Anyone but Obama 2012” bumper stickers on their cars. It’s really quite pathetic.
As I’ve said since the GOP primaries:
“Romney will win the nom and lose the general” (TM)
Rmoney has got to be the worst presidential candidate of my lifetime.
JPL
Do you have an act blue site to donate? Maybe I want to donate.
AnotherBruce
The tags “Mitt or get off the Pot” have never been more appropriate.
dmsilev
@The Dangerman: While I could certainly imagine Palin wanting to kneecap Romney like that, I can’t imagine her being able to. Firstly, she obviously joined the McCain campaign *after* the vetting of Romney was finished, so there’s no reason that she would have had access to the vetting documents. Secondly, can anybody imagine Sarah Palin lying low until the ideal moment and then delivering a perfectly targeted killing strike? She’s not exactly the sniper personality type.
Svensker
@kindness:
You been talking to my male relatives?
replicnt6
@Johnk:
I’ve been wondering about this from the start. That would be ugly for the race, and then make his life ugly afterwards. Not releasing the returns just makes the race ugly.
Culture of Truth
Any word on the much-promised 2011 taxes? Cause I paid mine back in April, as I recall.
shortstop
@Just Some Fuckhead: It certainly defangs the religious oppression angle.
rikyrah
I don’t know what’s in them, but I’m surmising:
1. he didn’t pay taxes for some years
2. when he did pay taxes, it wasn’t even close to a 10% rate
3. he’s on that amnesty list of 2009 – which means the shyt he was involved with was ILLEGAL.
don’t nobody doing LEGAL shyt NEED AMNESTY.
4. he’s got a whole lot more foreign accounts.
5. the pay for the job he didn’t do because he was retired retroactively
a) he never gave back that money retroactively
b) it wasn’t remotely close to $100,000….try probably 8 figures
6. he did some shady shyt for that 100 million dollar IRA
7. still hasn’t explained how he gave his sons 100 million WITHOUT PAYING ANY TAXES
I’m just sayin’.
Sly
@kindness:
Obama is such a devious bastard that he managed to get into Harvard Law, become President of the Harvard Law Review, receive a J.D. with honors, and go on to lecture at the University of Chicago Law School for twelve years even though he’s an idiot who failed all his classes at Occidental and Columbia.
Culture of Truth
Yeah, Sarah Palin released 8 years of of college transcripts!
Villago Delenda Est
@dmsilev:
I can imagine her prematurely opening up the ambush before the target is in the kill zone, though. To make sure everyone knows that it was her launching the attack.
jayboat
Looks like the campaign has decided to take off the gloves.
Helluva first punch.
Violet
@NancyDarling:
I’m currently vacationing in what I can only surmise must be a swing state area. There are a lot of political commercials during the Olympics. Saw one by American Crossroads with several former Olympians saying how great Mitt Romney was and how he saved the Olympics or made them great or something. One guy was named, but I didn’t know him. I’m pretty sure Kristi Yamaguchi was another one shown.
I’d like to know who they are so I can boycott anything they do or are associated with in the future. It’s one thing to appear in an actual campaign ad, but it’s something entirely different to appear in a SuperPAC ad. Scummy move by them.
SatanicPanic
@Caravelle: Doesn’t the McCain campaign have them laying around somewhere? Maybe they’ll piss McCain off enough for him to spill the beans.
shortstop
@Svensker: @kindness: I have noticed that most of the (always white) people advancing this “No way is a black dude smart enough to get into/through Harvard law on his own chops” innuendo are not themselves current or past attendees of institutions of higher learning. But they just know they’re smarter than the president.
@Sly: These people actually think you get to be president of the Harvard Law Review via affirmative action — and that affirmative action means “Let all those negroes with 1.7 undergraduate GPAs in!”
Kevin
This would be such grand news if true. I just stumbled upon this LOONNGG piece that should be on the front page of every newspaper in your country:
http://vagabondscholar.blogspot.ca/2012/07/the-four-types-of-conservatives.html
It is a long article (did I mention that?) but well worth the time and patience. I’ve NEVER read a better summary of your Rabid Right.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us? (formerly MarkJ)
@D. Mason: Not to mention he’s very critical of the moochers and looters who don’t have to pay taxes because they don’t make enough income to have to pay taxes. When you’re rich exploiting tax loopholes is a virtue, when your poor it’s a vice.
scav
@Sly: Not to forget he’s still less qualified to govern after 4 years on the job than a half-term gov of a thinly populated state (per Marine LePen’s sister of a different father).
redshirt
@shortstop: Should be added to the Lexicon: Dunning – Kruger Effect.
The Dangerman
@dmsilev:
True, it would have to be someone from within McCain’s team; would they want to help Palin? I would guess not, huh?
Villago Delenda Est
@shortstop:
Hubris. They constantly underestimate Obama because he’s near. It’s unpossible that he’s outsmarting them.
Shock Trooper in the War on Christmas
@NancyDarling: Pretty sure you got to sign and date. (At least, that’s how it works for us mere mortals)
ericblair
@replicnt6:
I’d guess that if he was stiffing the LDS, he was doing it with their permission as their Great Shining Hope prince of the Church. That would probably be worse for the Church, as the rank and file Mormons might get to see up close how there’s one rule for the little guy and another for the bigwigs.
mdblanche
@Culture of Truth: I think Rmoney got an extension until October. And you can see the hole from that decision clean through his foot. Now either his 2011 tax returns come out when everybody’s paying attention or they don’t. Either way he loses. Does he have anybody on his staff who can plan ahead? (And I refuse to call planning ahead six months long term planning. Because it’s not.)
shortstop
@redshirt: I have been forced to conclude that the D-K E is rampant among today’s Republicans. In fact, I may have harped on it here a few dozen times.
Comrade Mary
@jl: I thought you were making that up, but damn, he actually said that.
He used to be a boxer, right?
redshirt
@shortstop: True – I learned about it here. Maybe from you!
It also explains many behaviors of Democrats, if one can assume your average Democrat is more educated/intelligent than your average Wingnut. Which I think we can.
Filled with doubts and insecurities created by the understanding that the world is complex and diverse.
shortstop
@mdblanche: I think people (and, unsurprisingly, the MSM) are forgetting that while Romney has consistently refused to release his tax returns in general, spokesloser Andrea Saul is on record as saying that they’d file and publicly release the 2011 return by October 15. 2011 clearly doesn’t have the goods that 2009 and prior have, but I still wonder if they’ll renege on this one, too. “We were going to release it, but you people have been so ruuuuude that we’ve changed our minds!”
ETA: Correction: She said they’d release it “before the election.” Obviously it has to be filed with the IRS by October 15.
catclub
“Let’s just see how much of this sustained kind of assault he can take before deciding it is no longer worth it to hide all his tax dodges.”
There have been many times that ‘sustained assault’ and ‘Harry Reid’ would never grace the same sentence. Apparently he has either changed or he is being reported on differently than in the past. I suspect more of the second.
Cris (without an H)
Is it irresponsible to speculate? In this case, it is awesome to speculate.
Culture of Truth
Maybe he’ll release the 2011 return the day of a Presidential debate showing he paid like 70% taxes and the moderate will ask about that since they ask whatever was in the news cycle that week.
Heh I doubt it but it would be devious of him
catclub
@ericblair: LDS:
“he was doing it with their permission as their Great Shining Hope prince of the Church”
Maybe this bit pisses off Reid, who is also Mormon, and hence the (politically) most powerful Mormon in the country.
slag
@Comrade Mary: I had the exact same reaction. Frankly, I still don’t believe it.
gelfling545
@jl: You’ll never get me to believe there were TWO women who;d have him.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Violet: well from the tabloid perspective they have the choice of a white middle class couple; Obama and Micheal, boring, or this vaguely creepy guy who constantly says weird things, Mittens. It’s pretty easy after that.
rikyrah
you know what I love about this?
how the hell can Willard defend himself from this?
he can’t. …without releasing the tax returns.
you know, a Democrat could come up with a story about Willard everyday… and he can’t defend against it..
without releasing the tax returns.
BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
rikyrah
I am now completely convinced that the Prudential Building knows EXACTLY what’s in those returns.
shortstop
@catclub: Reid is also going to be the most politically powerful Mormon in the country on November 7. Too bad for Mittsy. God, if only this man were spending down the layabout sons’ inheritance this time like he did in 2008, it would all be perfect. ;)
Cris (without an H)
“I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative.”
Villago Delenda Est
I don’t think he can release his taxes for the last 10 or so years precisely because Harry Reid’s source is on the money.
It would confirm what is suspected.
Rmoney is willing take the constant hits at the waterline because to release his returns would be basically to scuttle. He’s hoping he can absorb the hits and stay afloat.
JPL
Might be time for an Act Blue page so we can donate…
Violet
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Yep. The media is going to catch on, but not very fast on their own. It’s encouraging to see the Dems and the Obama campaign helping them along, since the media is always a bit slow and dim-witted. The horse race narrative is boring. Weird, rich, rude, wimpy, cowardly, unprepared candidate who might not be up to the job of President…hmmm… is much more interesting. The MSM will figure that out eventually.
japa21
@mdblanche: Yes, he is screwed either way. If he doesn’t, then the question will be why he didn’t after saying he would. If he does, the question will be what he has to hide that he won’t give anything prior to 2010 returns.
I don’t think he has done anything illegal. I think he has just been able to use every loophole available to pay next to nothing or nothing.
BTW, I specially loved Reid’s line about Romney’s dad.
GregB
Mitt Romney, what is he hiding?
Tone In DC
@Turgidson:
LULz.
Valdivia
am I the only one baffled that no one (that I have seen) has made a point of counting the times Romney is on Fox News Channels. It seems to me he is there every day or at least a few times a week. It’s the only place he gives interviews and engages with. Come on pundits, you can do a colorful graph showing us the weekly visits.
catclub
@NancyDarling: “Can he do that and conceal the fact that they are amended?”
I am betting he can do that, or at least try. The real key bits are not the numbers reported, but all the 1099’s and such, which would not be, because it is assumed (facts not in evidence here) that the tax returns are honest.
I am betting on just this. Amend the returns or just release completely bogus returns. The IRS is forbidden by confidentiality rules from piping up and saying “But those returns do not match what he sent to us.”
I get shouted down that such behavior is unpossible.
Even though Benen reports that all Mittens does is lie.
Tone In DC
@dmsilev:
Moar LULz.
MattR
@gelfling545: Since I can see you did not click (and really why bother), I’ll let you know the story was some fat idiot who saw Mitt Romney’s picture on his girlfriend’s facebook page, thought it was potential competition and went into a violent jealous fit even after being told who it was.
JohnK
@ericblair: Many don’t give their fair share, wealth and success is so important. Giving is not what JSmith was after when he dug up the story of the seven golden plates. It isn’t about giving, it’s about taking. It is about being the richest grifter.
Roger Moore
@shortstop:
Of course they are. Their skin is several shades paler, which is all the evidence they need to conclude they’re way smarter than he is.
David Koch
Mourning Joe was in full panic today.
it was so, so delicious.
one of the idiots, pulling his hair out, screamed Romney had turned into a perpetual SNL skit.
ahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahaha
pseudonymous in nc
“Let’s make the bastard deny it.”
I don’t think there’s going to be anything illegal in those returns. I do think they’ll show that when you’ve made your money from the kind of baroque investments and Russian-doll structuring that Mittens has follows — again, you don’t get a ~$100m IRA from picking stocks — you can pay a very small proportion of it as tax, which Mittens considers to be his privilege, so fuck you.
David Koch
hahahahahahahhahahahhahahahahhahahahahahaahahahha
ahahahahahhahahahhahahahhahahahahahhahahahhahahah
hahahahahahahhahahahhahahahahhahahahahahaahahahha
ahahahahahhahahahhahahahhahahahahahhahahahhahahah
moops
@catclub:
That is my guess as to what will happen.
Mitt will release incorrect tax returns, for some number of years, close enough to the election that he can say “so there, shut up already”
Then after the election he will either be a) President and have more important things to do than answer questions about his fraudulent taxes, or b) remain a private citizen and go about his life with his privacy still intact until people forget another of his big lies.
He really has nothing to lose unless someone figures out his released returns are fraudulent *before* the election. So, he has doctored and convoluted tax returns and will drop them in the last week of the campaign.
HyperIon
@Jay in Oregon:
I know you are snarking but I sure hope old Harry Reid is not getting played. Because it will bite the Dems in the ass if it turns out that this unsupported allegation is false.
I feel the same about Romney’s “London isn’t ready” statement. If a notable security breach occurs, we’ll be hearing “I told you so” over and over from Romney and his followers.
Raven
@HyperIon: Who gives fuck. Get off that concern troll shit.
Heliopause
Let me say up front, I’m all for continuing to hammer Romney on this. Keep the pressure on.
But as long as we’re just talking amongst ourselves, c’mon. Some anonymous guy who just happens to know Romney’s personal finances dials up Harry Reid and spills the beans? Please. This sounds like one of Michele Bachmann’s tall tales.
Gin & Tonic
Looks like Reid has been taking some lessons from a (deceased) former Majority Leader, a much taller one. Something about intercourse with livestock…
AnotherBruce
@HyperIon:
It’s a gamble for sure, but I’m betting with Harry, it’s one that he’s going to win. Mitt’s either going to release the forms and pay a price, or he’s not going to release them and pay a higher price than he would have if Reid hadn’t said anything. I doubt very much that this is going to cost the Democrats at all.
Raven
Le Bron wit da crushing slam!
Raven
@Heliopause: Yea, no one has EVER done anything like that before.
cxs
@Valdivia: That sounds right up Steve Benen’s alley.
David Hunt
@NancyDarling:
Short answer: No. Longer answer: sure if he’s willing to effectively lie.
First, I’m not aware of a way to amend tax returns more than three years old so older returns should be what was filed. Second, he can’t hide the fact that the return has been amended if he releases the full amended return. The first pages of an amended return are Form 1040-X which is a short summary page showing a before and after summary of the return showing what changed and a written section where you explain the changes. Of course there are ways to game that. He could simply leave the 1040-X off the released documents and we’d get the new “corrected” numbers without any indication that it was amended if he blacked out the “date signed” space. That would look fishy, however. People releasing returns would routinely black out ID numbers like the Social Security Numbers of the taxpayers and Federal ID numbers of any other entities listed in the return, but there’s no reason to black out the date that you signed the thing and (more important) he didn’t block out the date he and Ann signed the 2010 return. Someone would notice that and he’d eventually get caught out.
A more sneaky way would be amend the returns twice. File an amended return that had major corrections and showed greatly increased taxes and then amend that return with secondary minor corrections. That way you can release the full amended return and you don’t have the damning “before” portion showing that he pays a 9% tax rate or whatever.
Of course he’s never going to do that. He’d have to pay millions in back taxes plus penalties and interest. There’s no way to amend those returns to show more taxes without actually paying those taxes. I simply refuse to believe that Mitt Romney is willing to give the IRS that much money to look less like Thurston Howell III to the American people.
ETA: and no, he can’t turn around an amend them back to the old numbers without first paying what additional taxes shown on the amended return that shows the higher taxes.
Raven
Ramadam is killin it for Tunisa!
elaine benes
@NancyDarling:
An amended return is a completely different tax form than the regular 1040, so yes, it would be obvious.
Josh
Why are people so surprised about Reid doing this? The man was a boxer when he was young and he survived polling in the low to mid 30s in an election year for him. He’s a fighter, and a shrewd one.
Turgidson
@SatanicPanic:
As much as McCain obviously drips with contempt for Romney, it’ll never match how much he has for “that one.” McCain will keep his yap shut until after the election. Then if Romney loses, he or one of his old campaign hands might spill some of Mittens’ secrets just for shits and giggles.
PeakVT
Reid is a cautious guy. I don’t think he’d float something like that without being reasonably sure.
Roger Moore
@shortstop:
IOW, it will be made public one minute before the first polls open, only in one room, and nobody will be allowed to make copies.
shortstop
@David Koch: Let’s rebaptize him and while we’re at it, ask him what he thinks of his son’s shenanigans.
trollhattan
@PeakVT:
My take as well. It’s not like we find ourselves chanting, “There goes crazy Harry, flying off the rails again.”
If it were Biden….
shortstop
@Roger Moore: That had occurred to me. Well, if they’re willing to withstand the drumbeat of demand in the days between October 15 and November 6…pass me the popcorn.
Narcissus
Man when did Harry Reid get such balls? This is shaking up my world-view something terrific.
The Moar You Know
Such beautiful timing, after Little Lord Romney’s jaunt through the Continent and his campaign’s savage abuse of the American press throughout. I’m sure that after being told to go fuck themselves they’ll be kindly disposed to write nice things about him and ignore this…interesting story.
Christ, what a stupid fuck he is. The man has the people skills of the town drunk on a bath salts binge.
Turgidson
@The Moar You Know:
Certainly won’t help his standing with them, but he’ll be OK. The press wants a horse race, and the angry rich white guys who own their companies want Romney. Coverage of his campaign will never get as hostile as he deserves.
Sasha
The IRS maintains Tax Return Transcripts and Tax Account Transcripts for three years running which means that Romney can get IRS copies of his tax return data for 2009, 2010, and 2011 with a few clicks of the mouse, just by going to IRS.gov. The Tax Return Transcripts contain all of the information from the filed tax return including schedules but does not include amended data; the account transcript has any amended data. Other than that, I’m a little vague on the difference but both are available and both are free. They arrive in 7 to 10 days.
Applications for college financial aid must now be accompanied by the family’s Tax Return Transcript as it is impossible to fake, unlike a tax return.
moops
Short answer: No. Longer answer: sure if he’s willing to effectively lie.
why does anyone think he wouldn’t lie about his taxes?
He can release anything he likes, call them “His Taxes” and there isn’t anything anyone can do about it.
Anyone who would know they are fake is also legally bound to keep their mouth shut. He just does a big garbage truck document dump of made up taxes and then puts the Dems in a suplex and calls them all rumor-mongering jerks.
If he wins what are you going to do ? impeach him for lying during a campaign? when every politician ever has lied during the campaign…..
Gopher2b
I know alittle something about private equity and a little bit more about taxes, and I can tell you this is entirely possible. People with that level of wealth borrow the money they need because the interest on the loan is far less than the tax rate (see Zuckerberg’s 1% interest rate). They go their lifetime without tapping their capital, and slowly roll their wealth into trusts, family LLCs, etc until they die, their estate pays off their loan, and then pay absolute minimum estate taxes.
I wouldn’t doubt it for a second.
Violet
@Turgidson:
Don’t underestimate the desire of a lower level reporter wanting to make a name for him or herself. If that reporter could break a story that derailed the Romney campaign, they’d be on a gravy train for the rest of their lives. One of them is going to figure that out eventually and do some real digging.
LanceThruster
Why do the captains of industry treat their tax strategies like fetish porn that they’re ashamed of instead of showing some pride and talking about it like they were doing a Tony Robbins infomercial (You see, what you do is move this account here and defer these earnings to a later date when your tax burden will be less…)?
I suppose the answer is that it will not be quite as lucrative a strategy if all the rubes were in on it. That, and the clear evidence that they are merely gaming the system to the exclusion of all except for benefit only to themselves.
Glob of Kolob, how I hate the droid known as Mitt Rmoney.
In Philip K. Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” the droids lacked that bit of human empathy that might help them pass as human. In “Blade Runner” the androids possessed more of that appreciation of “life” than many of their human counterparts.
As some BJ wags here noted far back, the Mitterbot needs to subject himself to a Voigt-Kampff test, to assure us earthlings he is indeed human (or at least possesses the modicum of human characteristics necessary for the job).
Studly Pantload, the emotionally unavailable unicorn
“Mitt Romney isn’t the solution. Mitt Romney is the problem.”
Gotta figure Team Obama knows just what’s not in those tax returns (as in, a whole lot of taxes not getting paid). That’s why they hit him so hard and so early. There are a lot of ways to beat him to the punch about building his narrative for him before the conventions without using near-incendiary language. But I think they knew the more about Mitt that gets out there, the more prescient they’re going to look in using that kind of rhetoric. When Obama can say “See? Told ya!” with a great big, disarming smile, it will get a lot of people’s natural incentive to cast their lot with a winner.
shortstop
OT, I’m really happy I inadvertently timed tomorrow’s ophthalmology appointment in time for the dilation to wear off early, so that I can enjoy Rafalca the Dancing Horse.
ETA: Wait, I’m wrong! The horse dances on August 2! Sounds a little bit like “The eagle lands at midnight.”
karen marie
@SatanicPanic: McCain has not yet, that I’ve heard, been invited to speak at the GOP 2012 convention.
The Moar You Know
Bain investor? We all know that’s unlikely at best, but what a great cover story!
Fellow Mormon who’s not a Romney fan and has seen Romney’s financials for tithing purposes?
Oh yeah, now we’re talking.
Harry’s not full of shit on this one, guys. He’s been called spineless for a reason – suffers from an overabundance of caution.
pseudonymous in nc
@HyperIon:
I disagree. My guess is that the very most the Rmoney Estate has paid in taxes over the past decade is around 15% of their income, which may be a largish dollar number, but doesn’t go very well with a narrative about how Jarb Cre-ay-tors need to pay less. (You’ve got Man-on-Dog arguing that case; not working.)
The only possible downside here is is if someone produces fake/doctored/stolen returns, or leaks the real ones — possibly as a Rovian ratfuck. That’s what the Dems have to watch out for.
Kane
If Romney is willing to create a shell company in Bermuda to assist foreign corporations to avoid paying US taxes, is it really beyond the imagination that he would do everything possible to avoid paying his share of taxes?
shoutingattherain
Nobody expects the
SaturdayTuesday surprise!Welcome home, Mitt. It ain’t gonna be any easier here.
Kilgore Trout
@catclub:
An amended tax return is a different form – 1040X rather than 1040. So no he couldn’t present an amended return as being the original.
iamcurious
Harry Reid WAS a boxer, and if I’m not mistaken, this was a “feint’:
A fake punch or any offensive movement used to get your opponent to react and move out of his good offensive position opening himself up to your real attack.
Sloegin
Eh, a bunch of Romney proxies will screech about Reid in the next couple of days: “How DARE Reid make an accusation like that!” Maybe the moldering newscorpse will run with it, maybe not.
Much like the reporter asking then candidate-Bush if he ever did coke; the answer was essentially “How dare you ask that” and “I won’t stoop to answering that despicable question” — which anyone with two brain cells to rub together realized was the classic non-denial denial.
Good on Reid though to try to keep it alive.
MikeJ
@Kilgore Trout:
He could release the info on the tax forms without releasing the originals. I haven’t looked at what other candidates have released in the past.
MTiffany
This is great bait: if the Romney camp refuses to release the tax returns, then the assumption will be that the truth is worse than the allegations, and that becomes the story; if the Romney camp does release the tax returns, and Mittens paid no taxes for even one (ONLY ONE) single year, then THAT becomes the story.
This does have me slightly worried though: where is the REAL Harry Reid, and how soon will the pod people be coming for me?
bemused
Mitt has been running for various seats, senator, governor, president, for years but in one respect he has been totally consistent. He doesn’t believe he has to reveal anything about himself. He bought and destroyed hard drives when he left his governor seat. I read that even his letters to and from his parents are missing even though the whole family were prolific letter writers. He carries secrecy about himself to very suspicious levels.
LanceThruster
Why is it that it is only in regards to the Patriot Act that we are scolded over wanting our privacy which could only mean that we have something to hide, and that the ability for outsiders to pour over our every act (via CCTV and airport pron scanners) should be welcomed *IF* we have nothing to hide?
FU, Mitt RMoney and the expensive dancing horse your wife rode in under!
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@HyperIon:
You’re either glossing over the point of Reid’s gambit or missing it entirely.
The idea here is to force Mitt’s hand. Rmoney has made such a big deal over not releasing his returns that Reid decided to goad him into it. I doubt he honestly gives a damn whether or not Rmoney paid no taxes for 10 years or not. The real point here is that Rmoney’s reluctance to release his returns speaks to a likelihood of them containing some extremely damaging and juicy fodder in any event.
Rmoney now has two choices:
1. He can continue to refuse to release them, in which case speculation continues at a fever pace, and damages his prospects.
2. He can release them and watch the proverbial feces hits the high speed wind oscillating device as the media gets their claws into them. Reid’s assertion may get some play, but it will be buried by an avalanche of reporting on the nasty business buried in those documents, whatever that is.
FTR, I’m no fan of Reid’s. But in this case, he played this well.
shortstop
@LanceThruster: Dude, is that a Catherine the Great joke?
Corpus Christy
I’d be the first say I’d like to see Romney die in a cock fire, but … isn’t it kinda irresponsible for Reid to be conjecturating this sort of thing without substantiation? “Well, I’m not certain …”
“Love it” ? Really, JC? Yipes.
trollhattan
@shortstop:
Love that.
“These people” are such dilettantes yet, ironically, belong to a religion that makes it very hard to actually enjoy their mountains of loot. It’s hard to grasp just how aloof and removed they are from reality, and all that campaigning doesn’t seem to have made a dent in Willard’s perfectly coiffed pate. He relates to the rubes solely on their shared Obama-hatred.
Patricia Kayden
If Romneybot didn’t pay taxes for 10 years, why would he release them to the American electorate? Wouldn’t that damage him beyond repair?
He needs to hold on to them until the media gets bored with the issue, which they eventually will unless the Obama campaign keeps beating the drums.
trollhattan
@danah gaz (fka gaz):
Good cop/bad cop scenario w/Reid playing bad cop:
“You killed that woman.”
“No, I didn’t, man!”
“We know you were there; we’ve got your prints.”
“No man, you got it all wrong, I just robbed her.”
And, scene.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@pseudonymous in nc:
I think that’d actually be a huge fail for Rmoney. Then again, maybe I’m overconfident in thinking that such a falsification would get discovered before november.
I don’t see how leaking the real things would do anything other than damage Rmoney.
Maybe there’s a sympathy play for his privacy violation, but remember Rmoney isn’t exactly the most sympathetic person around. I think he’d have trouble getting much play on the sympathy front.
On the other hand, if his tax information didn’t contain some seriously damaging stuff, he’d have released more by now. Even I can’t believe his campaign is THAT incompetent.
Also, on that last note: As I recall, John McCain saw 20+ years of Rmoney’s tax returns when considering him for Veep. He nixed him.
karen marie
@bemused: I don’t think there’s anything suspicious about the correspondence between Mittens and his family being kept secret. It does, however, say a lot about how incredibly insecure he is.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@trollhattan: yeah. and in the end, the guy is still a criminal. =)
quiettom
Change the name to Obama and give it to Limbaugh and by tomorrow morning it will be on Fox and Friends and then on its way as truth to the dim ones who sit and wait for further instructions from Fox.
karen marie
@bemused: I don’t think there’s anything suspicious about the correspondence between Mittens and his family being kept secret. It does, however, say a lot about how incredibly insecure he is.
MTiffany
[They belong to a]
see also: Smeagol, aka Gollum.
Such is the nature of avarice.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@trollhattan: yeah. and in the end, the guy is still a criminal. =)
MTiffany
@trollhattan:
[They belong to a]
see also: Smeagol, aka Gollum.
Such is the nature of avarice.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@Patricia Kayden:
I’ve considered that myself. It is possible that Reid played this card too early. Time will tell, I suppose. Also, I think it depends on how Rmoney responds. If he actually releases the information (which I doubt) this story will keep for awhile longer.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@Patricia Kayden:
I’ve considered that myself. It is possible that Reid played this card too early. Time will tell, I suppose. Also, I think it depends on how Rmoney responds. If he actually releases the information (which I doubt) this story will keep for awhile longer.
LanceThruster
@shortstop:
That, or an Ann the Mediocre one.
xD
danah gaz (fka gaz)
apologies for the duplicate. BJ servers are being characteristically recalcitrant when it comes to posting, and I should have known better than to make a second attempt after the first timed out. Mea Culpa.
Baud
@David Koch:
My thoughts exactly.
chuck butcher
In regard to Harry Reid, do any of you bother to remember just exactly who is in the Senate Democratic Caucus that Harry has to work with and count on? Spineless? Fuck, I’d rather beat myself on the head with a framing hammer.
krahbedad
Rmoney’s tax returns will probably show that Mitt paid an average of less than 5000 a year over a ten year period. When they come out Romney’s Camp will release Ad’s stating that Reid has been proved a liar…..
decitect
@danah gaz (fka gaz):
maybe it’s so Dems can print up “tax returns” for the convention like payback for the purple heart band-aids during RNC 2004. That was classy…
Turgidson
@decitect:
And don’t forget everyone carrying a pair of flip-flops around. God, what a gathering of insufferable assholes GOP conventions are these days.
feebog
Releasing multiple years of tax returns would certainly demonstrate one thing; rMoney is worth a whole lot more than 250 million. Think about it. On the one return he has released he had an income of almost 22 million. More than half than that was capital gains. He paid a 13.9% rate in 2010.
Does anyone doubt that he was making more, and by more I mean shitloads more while at Bain? Looking at this conservatively, he was with Bain 25 years, from 1978 to 2003. If he averaged just (just?) 25 million a year, thats 625 million. Tack on what he has made each year since, and a very conservative estimate is 800 million. At an average 12% tax rate, he has only paid about 100 million, give or take over that time.
And remember boys and girls, rMoney was not putting that 700 million under the matress. He was no doubt putting a good deal of that money into high yield investments. I have no doubt that rMoney is in fact a Billionaire, perhaps several times over.
Undoubtedly he has some kinky financial stuff hidden away in those returns, but someone is going to connect the dots if rMoney releases multiple years of tax returns.
Fluke bucket
@Turgidson: And it was perjury that led to the impeachment of a sitting President once. It is a very serious offense. Or was at one time anyway.
Jay in Oregon
@schrodinger’s cat:
I’m still betting on negative tax paid, at least on whatever passes for earned income.
Even if he only got five bucks back from the IRS, it would blow a hole in “we need tax breaks for the jaaaaaahb creators!”
Omnes Omnibus
@chuck butcher: I agree. I think Reid has done the as good a job as is possible with the Caucus with which he had to work.
Brian R.
@danah gaz (fka gaz):
Rahm Emmanuel actually made that point on one of the Sunday shows a week or so ago. Something like “John McCain got to see 23 years of Mitt Romney’s tax returns, and as soon as he did, he decided Sarah Palin was more qualified to be on the ticket.”
BOOM.
Original Lee
@Kevin: Wow! As you said, long but excellent. I have bookmarked it for future use. And I now have a new, pithy comeback (paraphrased from the article): Having an open mind does not mean turning off your bulls**t meter.
Roger Moore
@chuck butcher:
This. Also, too, remember the Senate rules Reid is working under, and that the same recalcitrant people he works with refused to change them. Reid’s problem isn’t that he isn’t tough enough; it’s that he’s herding cats.
Turgidson
@Fluke bucket:
Apparently only if it’s a Democrat and the lie is about sex.
…or if you’re a top Bush official and it’s necessary for a fall guy to go down for perjury in order to protect you. Though the media would have loved to bury that one too.
But a rich white Republican guy lying about his finances? Well, that’s his business and shame on you for bringing it up!
Pongo
@Jay C: Reid is a Mormon, so this is a Mormon-on-Mormon slappy fight. Seems unlikely that the church can be happy about this. I wonder which side they’re backing? Could be they find Romney as unlikable as everyone else, I suppose, and support Reid trying to take him down. More likely, they want to get their hands on those tax returns too. Mormons have to give 10% to the church and maybe they think Romney owes them some some cash.
Kevin
@Original Lee:
Thanks, I was getting depressed at the thought no one had read it; I think it should be required reading for all Progressives :)
jefft452
@pseudonymous in nc: “I don’t think there’s going to be anything illegal in those returns.”
I do
For the claim that he’s just hiding something that looks bad – a numbered Swiss Bank account, an account in the Cayman Islands, and an entire 2 income family’s yearly salarys worth of dancing horse deductions – that’s what’s in the one year he thought was good enough to release
For the claim that his lawyers and accountants are too smart to let him break the law instead of bending it – he signed under penalty of perjury 2 contradictory documents regarding his position at Bain
jefft452
@jefft452:
also, too
“Ive paid all the taxes I’m legally required to” – Romney
The lady doth protest too much, methinks
peorgietirebiter
@jl:
That’s the tell. How little he pays is a source of pride for him, its an event in the masters of the universe olympics.
Romney even caged the John D. Rockefeller quote from the very first year of federal income tax-
” pay what I owe, not a penny more or a penny less.”
I remember the last year I paid less than 13.9%. 1965, I was 14 and it was the year before I got my Social Security Card.
ellennelle
@Jay in Oregon:
i’m also suspicious the obama campaign somehow has a copy of those old returns mccain got from rmoney. however, it was most definitely not mccain himself who shared them, as he carries enough animus for obama to curdle a magnum of dom perignon.
nevertheless, i do suspect they do have the goods. or have at least seen them. or at least someone has told them the numbers of things they contain that would be, um, uncomfortable. such as residences (when he has voted and when he has run for office), charitable giving (to prop 8?), tithing much less than 10% of real income, listed employers/business status and their timing, kickbacks from SLOC investors, various and sundry toys, trips, abodes, and payoffs, etcetcetc.
if i recall correctly, it was on the DN! interview yesterdaywith steele and bartlett, i think one of them said the stalling on rmoney’s part is not so much because he’ll never release the returns, but because they are being amended. but my question is, we’ll be able to tell they’re amended, right? the forms are different, and they can’t fake that, right? so i don’t see how this is a good explanation.
in any case, what a masterful play on reid’s part. no doubt obama is with him all the way on this. and yes, harry did box as a youth. there is a great story about an early campaign in which his opponent accused him of some crime or other, and when he next saw him, harry literally jumped on him, physically. he was so furious to be accused of a crime, he could not see.
do not underestimate this guy. he did not get to the position he holds being dumb like boehner. i’ve been astounded at how well he’s been able to keep the senate from exploding. people don’t realize what he and pelosi and obama are dealing with on capitol hill; it’s like trying to reason with a rattler, a very hot and pissy rattler. you simply cannot move without endangering everything.
but this move, wow; it’s like something chili palmer would do.
Jeffro
Reid: “Whut’s this 11-dimensional chess thing you’ve been playin’ for a while now?”
Obama: “Oh come on, who are you kidding?”
Reid: “Well okay, yeah, I know…but I only play 4-dimensional. Now watch this move…”
ellennelle
@Just Some Fuckhead:
not sure it’s intended to depress mormon turnout (like they have enough numbers to worry about).
seems more likely to me that reid’s word gives this that much more credibility. no one – not even romney – can whine he’s picking on him because he’s mormon.
ellennelle
@The Dangerman:
i think the calculus goes something like “who in mccain’s camp hates romney more than obama?”
cannot imagine who that might be. most definitely NOT mccain. or palin.
SBJules
Harry reid is my favorite Mormon ever!
ellennelle
@catclub:
um, well, he could try that, but you know, the iRS is under no obligation to maintain confidentiality when you have brazenly broken the law. if he presents one set of documents to the public, and it does not come close to checking with the what they have, they’ll haul his ass in and file charges if they have to.
he could of course be prez-elect by then. but hey, impeached in a heartbeat.
honestly, i don’t think he’d dare to fake his returns. he may be trying to amend them. but sheez, he’s known for years this would be an issue; he’s running for president, for pete’s sake!
slightly_peeved
@chuck butcher:
Hear hear. The Repubs, the DINOs and Lieberman had things he needed, so he had, at times, to cave. Romney hasn’t got any leverage over Reid, so Reid can do what he wants.
I don’t think Obama or Reid necessarily have any in side info – hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if Reid made the whole story up. I think they may just have decided to give Mitt a haircut with Occam’s Razor – if a presidential candidate who got rich from dodgy financial dealings refuses to release their tax returns, it’s because there’s some dodgy stuff in there.
RadioOne
whether or not they actually release more tax returns, I am confident that they will fuck the process up epically.
bob h
So, when terrorists struck in 2001, and troops were sent to Afghanistan, Mitt didn’t want to pay a penny to support them? And he didn’t want to spend a penny to help care for them when they were injured? And he didn’t want to support the troops in Iraq? This could be turned into a very nasty thing for Mitt.
sneezy
@moops:
That’s not a bad prediction and might not be the worst strategy for him. But here’s another prediction, in which I’ve had confidence since before he was even the presumptive nominee:
Romney is going to lose. He’s done, it’s over. The fucking schmuck hasn’t even made it to his own convention, isn’t even the official nominee of his own party yet, but he is toast.
He’s a miserable candidate running a miserable campaign, big chunks of his own party can’t stand him, absolutely nobody trusts him or believes a word he says and he is going to quite deservedly lose.
Now, the last thing I would want is for the Obama campaign to become complacent or take anything for granted, but I haven’t the slightest fear that they will do either of those things in the least way.
So I’m perfectly comfortable calling this thing now. It’s over, he’s done, and he is going to lose.